- "Morning 4587, beautiful day!"
- —Peter Yorke[src]
Peter Yorke (born January 1, 1978)[1] is a former prison guard of Slabside Maximum Security Prison. He was fired after being reported by the guards for badly treating the inmates because of his own personal issues and attempting to kill Oliver Queen. Peter is also the husband of Jenna Yorke and the father of Noah Yorke.
Biography
Yorke was born on January 1, 1978, at the age 19, he joins the army serves 8 years in the military, after being injured in line of duty, he started working at Slabside Maximum Security Prison, he has been working there for 12 years, although Yorke has a clean record as a prison guard, he is not well-liked by the other inmates; due to how badly he treats them.
At some point, Yorke met and married a woman named Jenna, and they have a son, named Noah.
On Yorke's watch as a prison guard, he is the main reason why the guards were corrupted by Daniel Brickwell and why Jarrett Parker tortured several inmates at Level Two, although Yorke had no idea at the time that those things were happening. After Oliver Queen's fight with Ricardo Diaz and surrendering himself to the FBI, Yorke oversaw Oliver's arrival to Slabside Maximum Security Prison. After Oliver Queen became an inmate, Yorke would greet him in his cell every morning when the latter woke up. After breaking up a fight with Oliver against Danny Brickwell, Ben Turner and Derek Sampson, Yorke had Turner sent to solitary confinement. Yorke goes to Oliver's cell and warns him to not get involved in a fight again before telling him he has a visitor. One day later, Yorke goes to Oliver's cell to inform him he had another visitor. One day when the inmates are released into the courtyard, Oliver knocks out Brickwell before proceeding to attack another inmate who knocked him out in an earlier fight and Yorke orders him to stand down but Oliver ignored him, leaving Yorke to take him into solitary.[2]
After two days, Yorke releases Oliver, while inspecting Oliver's cell, Oliver tries to warn him that Brickwell wants him dead, but he ignored his warning and tells Oliver that he is nothing but a vigilante. Oliver later took matters in his owns hands, where he stabbed himself and blamed it on Yorke to get him fired despite Yorke denying it.
After Yorke's removal from Slabside and Oliver breaking up Brickwell's fight club, Yorke is replaced by a guard named Felton as Oliver's handler and like Yorke, Felton started to keep the other guards in line, like Dunbar. Yorke had mocked Oliver about being an inmate in Slabside, however, the FBI had Oliver released and later Ben Turner which would be disappointing for Yorke.
Personality
- "The right thing? Is that what you were doing, running around in that costume? You turned the law into a joke. The Green Arrow's very existence invited criminals into your city. You think you're some kind of hero. Have you ever stopped to think maybe all you've done is make things worse?"
- —Peter Yorke to Oliver Queen[src]
Yorke is very arrogant to the point of being delusional, as he believes that he runs Slabside Maximum Security Prison when it is actually the prison warden, despite his clean record, Yorke is not well-liked by the inmates due to how badly he treats them and tries to get on their nerves for his own amusement. According to Oliver Queen, Stanley Dover and Ben Turner respectively; he is a hardass, jerk and dick, as he treats the other inmates like slaves, Yorke is arrogant towards individuals that he believes are inferior to him, like Oliver, as the only thing that Yorke knows about Oliver is that he was once a billionaire and vigilante. Yorke seems to enjoy treating Oliver badly most of all since he would rudely and childishly wake him every morning by him slamming his baton on the cell bars and listening in on Oliver speaking to John Diggle during a visit even though their conversation was none of his business.
Yorke always finds a way to anger every inmate and likes to take out his issues on them, Yorke is very jealous of Oliver after he assaulted Danny Brickwell, Ben Turner and Derek Sampson, he even watched Oliver do chin ups one time while Oliver was talking to Stanley. Because of his jealously towards Oliver, he told him that they both know better he is not a hero because of Yorke having grown up with kids who are rich, arrogant and powerful. He also ignores warnings from other inmates, as Oliver was trying to warn him that someone (Brickwell) wants him dead. Yorke even insulted Oliver when Oliver tried to help him by claiming he made Star City dangerous by being Green Arrow even though Yorke does not live there with his family and would not care if the people living in Star City were in danger.
Eventually, Yorke started to get on every inmate and his co-workers' nerves, to the point that they wanted him out of the prison; dead or fired, these negative traits of his made it easy for his co-workers, such as B. Dunbar, to believe he tried to kill Oliver, especially due to several complaints made about him by the other inmates. His self-righteous nature aside, as Oliver noted, he was at his core still a law-abiding man who kept the other guards in line which is why Brickwell wanted him gone in order to establish his fight club.
Yorke is very arrogant as he believes that being a guard means that the laws don't apply to him; legally it does, Yorke was about to assault Oliver with a baton due to Oliver mentioning to him his wife and son's names which is not illegal, despite Yorke being a family man, Yorke refuses to respect anyone's families even if they are in danger, Yorke refused to let Oliver spend more time with Felicity after Yorke learned she was attacked and when Oliver begged for more time, Yorke refused, telling Oliver that he doesn't care that he needs more time with his family, Yorke also purposely though a picture of Felicity and William to the ground and stepped on the picture when Oliver was trying to warn Yorke about Brickwell wanting to kill him. This proves Yorke is a very delusional man who only looks out for himself. When Oliver was confronting him about his bad behavior, Yorke refused to explain why he does all this and tried to intimidate Oliver into leaving; proving that Yorke is nothing more then a coward, who tries to put up a tough façade. He also seems to dehumanize the inmates by calling them by their inmate numbers as opposed to their real names.
These negative traits of his, is what eventually led to Yorke's deserved/justified removal from Slabside.
Appearances
Arrow
Season 6
Season 7
- "Inmate 4587"
- "The Longbow Hunters"
- "Crossing Lines" (mentioned)
- "The Slabside Redemption" (mentioned)
Trivia
- Ryan Jefferson Booth, Yorke's actor, has portrayed Andre in DC'S Legends of Tomorrow.
- After Yorke learned several prison inmates tried to kill Oliver Queen in the showers, he sent them down to Level Two for treatment from Dr. Jarrett Parker. While Yorke knew about Level Two's existence, he was unaware of Parker's unethical treatments towards the inmates; this proves that Yorke was incompetent in his role as a prison guard.
